Yesterday, Activision and Treyarch officially revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. A new gameplay trailer was released giving us a glimpse at the campaign, the multiplayer, and even a sneak peek at Zombies.
One of the big takeaways from the trailer was that multiplayer no longer has you playing as just a random soldier. Now, before each match you'll pick a Specialist — a unique character with his/her own unique power and weapon (although you can only select one of the two) that is unlocked through a miniature score streak.
So far, only four Specialists have been detailed — and you can see glimpses of them in action in the trailer above — but there are at least another five more still to be revealed. Of course, you can probably expect more to arrive via DLC because we all know Black Ops 3 will have a Season Pass.
Ruin
Weapon: Gravity Spikes allow him to leap through the air and slam down on to his target with an area-of-effect shockwave.
Power: Overdrive accelerates all of his movement for a short period of time.
Seraph
Weapon: Annihilator is a high-caliber revolver that kills enemies in one shot and has penetration rounds, meaning if you catch two enemies in a line you can kill them both with one shot.
Power: Combat Focus triggers a bonus multiplier to increase your scorestreak
Outrider
Weapon: The Sparrow is a compound bow with explosive bolts that kill in one hit. Despite a delay, the explosiveness of the arrows allows you to shoot them ahead of a moving enemy.
Power: Vision Pulse expands out from the character and tags all enemies' locations, allowing you to see them through walls.
Reaper
Weapon: Reapers arm transforms into the Scythe, a minigun that causes massive destruction to anyone in its crossfire.
Power: Glitch is a rewind ability that lets you teleport back to a position you were at a few seconds ago
Again, these are just four of the Specialists in Black Ops 3's multiplayer. I'm still not sure how I feel about this, as it completely changes the dynamic of Call of Duty's multiplayer, but maybe this is what the series needs. With all the talk of gamer fatigue and how the franchise is becoming stale, maybe it's time Activision does change things up. Perhaps the added element of unique characters — which gives it a sort of MOBA feel — could provide the spark players have been looking for. Reading through some of these abilities, though, remind me very much of Blizzard's upcoming first-person shooter, Overwatch.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will release on November 6, 2015. An open beta will be made available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for anyone who pre-orders the game. There was no mention of Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii U, though Activision maintains "actual platform availability and launch(s)" are still "to be determined."
